Happy Holiday (Bowl)s!

Me, my brother Maxwell, and my mom at the Ducks season opener this year.
Dear students,

I hope you are enjoying your time off! I certainly am trying to. This is really the first time I've had any sort of real down time since my last spring break! So I have tried to completely take my mind off everything in order to recharge for the next year. In accordance with that, I'm heading off tomorrow (Sunday) to go down to California (Los Angeles/San Diego) with my brother to watch the Ducks play in the Holiday Bowl vs. Oklahoma State on Tuesday night (5PM, ESPN). I will be back in town on the 31st, at which time I will be able to respond much more quickly to any e-mails or comments. I will have my laptop in California, but getting back to you with my usual quickness is unlikely.

However, it's time to start gearing back up for the new year soon! Given how much time you have had, there should be absolutely no excuse for these speeches not to be absolutely amazing. Call your group members. Work on your parts together. We will be doing the speeches on Tuesday, Jan. 6th - the first day you are back in my class. We'll get it out of the way, then watch Hotel Rwanda to wrap up the unit, before moving on to our next topic. Please e-mail me or post comments if you have any questions. I know that many of you are not looking forward to doing these, but especially with the amount of extra time you've been granted, make sure to abide by your class rules by a) Having a good attitude about doing the speeches and b) Taking personal responsibility to get your part done as well as communicating with your group members.

Have a wonderful last few days of 2008! :-)

See you next year?

FINAL UPDATE FRIDAY 5:15 AM: The Beaverton School District has just posted the following -

"Schools CLOSED to Students and Staff, Friday (12/19/2008). All Activities and Events Cancelled. Administration Facilities Open to Essential Staff."

In addition, part of the e-mail from the administration states:

"The decision to close is based on student and staff safety. While we are not expecting moisture today, the low temperatures have made the side roads extremely hazardous. Our ability to transport students safely would be compromised.

A review of instructional time will be conducted in January to determine if days will need to be made up in order to meet State instructional time requirements."

Go back to bed. :-) Have a fantastic and restful long break - those speeches had better be amazing by the time we get back! Please e-mail me or comment if you need any help at all, or just want to check in during your time off. Come back refreshed and ready to go for 2009!

UPDATE FRIDAY 12:20 AM: Wonderful students, it was great to be able to get home just now and see all your comments about the speech, the game, and school. I'm sorry I couldn't post them as they were coming - I can assure you the Blazer game was absolutely incredible, and now my voice is hoarse. As far as tomorrow goes, here's part of the e-mail the teachers got:

"No decision will be made regarding the status of school operations until Friday morning. Our greatest concern at this time is not the weather but the possibility of black ice on side roads and at higher elevations. A team will be driving the roads at 3:30 a.m., and a decision will be posted before 5:30 a.m."

I'm glad that the district is doing this, though it definitely is a pain to wake up so early to find out about school. Here's what I'm going to tell you guys (after looking at the comments as well as taking into account my situation here at my house, which is definitely still snowed in): If there is class today, BRING YOUR SPEECHES. No matter what, we will work with them. Now, I find it pretty doubtful that I will be able to make it in, and I also find it somewhat unlikely that the district will decide to have school, considering all the information about what is likely to happen tonight. It was already 32 degrees in downtown Portland when I left the game this evening and it is going to get colder.

Whether or not I am able to make it in, Mrs. DeFrance will work with you guys on your speeches. I don't think it's fair to ask you to do them the day before break, and I also don't think it is fair to watch half of Hotel Rwanda, coming back to it much later. We will do both the week we get back from break. Continue working on them with your group over the break! They had better be close to perfect! Ask me for any help you may need!

I will be up early to check online about school and will post an update as soon as I know at the top of the page. Thanks for paying so much attention to this all! Go Blazers! Brandon Roy for MVP! :-)

UPDATE THURSDAY 4:00 PM: It looks to be a similar sort of situation to last night. Here's part of the e-mail I just received:

"The Beaverton School District is closely monitoring changing conditions, and consulting with our local and national weather services to make a call for Friday. No decision has been made at this time. We will decide by 10:00 p.m. tonight (Thursday) or may wait until 5:00 a.m. tomorrow (Friday) morning."

So, keep paying attention! Have those speeches ready just in case! :-) In the meantime, read this article on some of the main perpatrators of the Rwandan Genocide finally being found guilty in the International Criminal Court TODAY - over 14 YEARS since the acts we are studying in class! Slow justice indeed.

CNN.com: Trio found guilty of Rwandan genocide
UPDATE at 9:30 PM: As Archana just pointed out in the comments (before I even knew, by the way, which is pretty amazing), the Beaverton School District has decided to cancel school tomorrow, Thursday, Dec. 18th. Please make sure to watch for tomorrow night's decision as well, but until then, enjoy another day off! Please stay safe and warm out there! Watch the Blazer game tomorrow night if you want - I'm hoping to make it out to be there! :-)

UPDATE WEDNESDAY 5:15 PM: For those wondering about when/if the district will decide about school on Thursday, this is part of the e-mail from the district administration I just received:

"The Beaverton School District is closely monitoring the national weather forecast and consulting with our local weather service to make a call for Thursday. No decision has been made at this time. We will decide by 10:00 p.m. tonight or may wait until 5:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. We need more information on the cold weather pattern that may be developing."

There you have it. I'll post again when I hear about any decision that is made. See, I told you the blog would be useful... :-)


The view outside my window at home in Portland,
during last year's Christmas Day snow.
Dear students,

With the Beaverton School District deciding to cancel school Wednesday, barring some sort of miraculous turn of events in the weather, I think it is now doubtful that you will be coming to class again in 2008. Please be sure that you keep checking the school closure updates each night, but for now, it certainly looks like having school will be unlikely. Friday is the last possible day that you could have my class.

What this means for our class: I will have to keep talking to Mrs. DeFrance, the administrators at Westview, and my professors at Lewis and Clark to determine what we are going to do, but for now, here's what we have come up with:

IF there is class on Friday: Be prepared to roll with the group speeches. Dress up (but be warm, first and foremost!) I doubt that Mr. Chamberlain will be able to come in, but we might be able to find another person to help out. We will try to do as much as possible.

IF there is NO class on Friday: Have a wonderful long break! We will be doing the speeches the first day you get back from break, so practice in front of the mirror, in front of your parents - make your part PERFECT! Continue to work on them. I think we are just going to continue with the plan that I had originally made - because I think watching Hotel Rwanda is a very important way to end the unit.

Keep checking this blog! I will almost certainly keep writing and giving little extra credit assignments (like the one I posted already) throughout the break. If you see something that might be related to the class, please let me know!

If you do not have your individual speech in: I need it in, ASAP. Please e-mail me immediately if you have not turned it in. You will not be a part of the group's speech, but I do need some sort of proof that EVERYONE has actually learned something about the genocide, and you will get credit for doing the individual portion of the speech.

Finally, please let me know if you have any questions or comments about what is going on. I hope that every one of you is staying safe and warm! Have another great day off! Keep checking back during the next few days! :-)

Sunday Scribbles: Snow, Speeches, and School

UPDATE II (4:15 PM Monday): NO SCHOOL tomorrow (Tuesday, Dec. 16th). There is also a huge storm likely on Wednesday. Please check back here tomorrow evening for instructions on the speech/other things going on in class, when I have a better idea of whether or not we will have class. Enjoy another day off responsibly! :-)

UPDATE (4:15 PM): Beaverton School District schools and facilities are CLOSED tomorrow, Monday, Dec. 15th. Enjoy the day off - stay safe and warm - make good decisions! See you Wednesday! Follow option D below!

Greetings students!

If you have been living in a cave for the last day, let me be the first to let you know: it's snowing. Like, a lot. As in, I have 2.5 inches on my back deck already.

So, what does this mean? For one, I think for the first time in my entire life, I am conflicted about a snow day. See, I am a HUGE fan of snow. I always waited up late at night, calculating the chances of snow and getting a day off school. So it is really weird that I am actually really sad about the possibility of school being cancelled, because I am also so incredibly excited to see what you guys have come up with for your group speeches.

Because I know everyone is wondering what the possible situations are, let me break them down for you:

A) The snow is sufficiently gone so that school operates on a full schedule tomorrow, and I am able to make it out. Remember, I live in the Portland hills - on Mt. Sylvania, near Lake Oswego. We are at about 800 feet in elevation. Meaning that I am getting completely slammed here and something dramatic is going to have to happen in order for me to be able to make it out and to class tomorrow. In this scenario, that dramatic melting happens tonight.

In this case: Class will be held as we planned. I will need all the group speeches typed up and handed in after we do all of the speeches in class. Dress up (though make your priority dressing warmly - it is going to be cold all week!) and be prepared to address the United Nations.

B) The school operates on a normal schedule, but I am unable to make it out. This is probably the second most likely situation. Like I said, it is pretty bad here, and since I live in the hills, it is very hard to get out with any snow on the ground. I will probably try, but it will be difficult.

If this happens, Mrs. DeFrance (if she can make it out) will probably just work on your speeches with you, or do some sort of other cool activity. Plan to give your speeches on Wednesday (I do not know if Mr. Chamberlain will be able to come on Wednesday, but Mrs. DeFrance and I are really excited to see them, so we are definitely doing them!) and dress up again on that day.

C) The Beaverton School District decides to have a two-hour late opening. This may be somewhat more likely than A.

In this case: I believe that you will not have my class, because it will be wiped out by the late opening - you would go to your third period class when school opens. If there is a two hour late opening, it is pretty unlikely that I will be able to come into school, so just e-mail me if you need any help with anything.

D) The district decides to close for Monday. I happen to think that this is probably the most likely outcome as it stands right now - though be sure to check out the school closure list in the morning here:


Oregon School Closure Information
If this is the case, continue working on your group speeches (but do NOT gamble on having extra time - the speeches should be done by tomorrow). Basically, just pretend that Monday is now moved to Wednesday (which means we will have less time to watch Hotel Rwanda before break, which I am not excited about, but I think I'll live with). Check this blog for updates. If you want me to review your speech, either e-mail me or come see me on Tuesday if we have school (I think Tuesday is a B day no matter what) and I am able to make it out.

There are some students that did not turn their individual speech to me by Friday. Unfortunately, this means that you will not be able to participate in the group speeches - I will ask you to do an individual assignment for in-class participation, but you will lose out on the 50 points that come along with the speech. You knew the rules quite clearly. Unless there is some sort of extraordinary circumstance which prevented you from turning it in, you are going to have a VERY difficult time making it up. Your actions have consequences. You are in high school - it's time to grow up and do your work on time, especially when I went out of my way to try and help you out.

For everyone else: thank you for working so hard! You guys definitely deserve any sort of fun that this little blizzard brings.

Most importantly: continue to work hard, have fun, be safe and responsible out there! Let me know if you have any questions, concerns, or comments! Have a great day! :-)

Period 1: Genocide in Rwanda, Day 4 - Class Recap

Time Magazine cover from August 1, 1994
Dear students,

To begin, I am very glad that today seemed to be entirely focused. I think that we now realize the magnitude of the task that we have in front of us. I will talk about how everything went below, but I did want to thank you up front for buying back in to the idea of actually doing something about this horrible conflict in Rwanda. Again, I am ALWAYS here to answer questions or help you out in any way I possibly can.

Proceeding on to the day:

Soundtrack: "Love Language" by Talib Kweli and Hi Tek. I am not going to link to the lyrics for all the reasons that we discussed in class - which I will go over below. Other than the obvious parallel to the lesson on language, I chose this song because it talks about all the different ways of saying love around the world. Remember: rap and hip-hop may be plenty of things, but it is not devoid of meaning. Be careful to actually think about what you are listening to - it will amaze you!

Agenda 12/11/08
Turning in HW
PEER REVIEW/Develop Group Speeches
Hip-Hop Language
Stages of Genocide
Hutu Ten Commandments

Homework: Finalize group speeches! Remember dress clothes! Check blog and ask questions if needed! (I think I was pretty excited about all of this when I wrote my lesson plan...)

Turning in HW: Okay, the tough thing up front. First off, I asked everyone to read what I had written back to you on your letters to me and the privilege in-class writing assignment from last class. I read everything that you write. What you write REALLY matters to me, so you can expect it back and thoroughly read by the next class after you do something (most of the time).

After talking about what I had read in the letters to me (hip hop/dancing/architects/sports/crowded halls), I tried to address each one and tell you that whatever you write to me as being important to you, I will attempt to find some way to integrate into class.

I'm not really sure how to approach writing about my talk about the letter to me/speech turn in rate, so I am just going to let you read EXACTLY what I wrote on my lesson plan for that little bit:

Now, about the percentage of the class that turned in a speech: this is where most teachers would probably yell at you. I will not. But let me be very clear, because I see this as partly my fault for not expressing my expectations strongly enough. Anything less than 100% of the class turning in an assignment is simply unacceptable to me. There are EIGHT students in this class that still have not turned in a one page letter to me about yourself that I assigned over a week ago and less than HALF (15 out of 32) turned in the speech that you were all aware would be a really big deal. Unacceptable. This may not be the message you think you are sending, but this is exactly what it tells me: you don’t care. You don’t care about me being the new teacher and having a fresh start to impress, you don’t care about Africa or Rwanda (or at least enough to do anything about it), and you don’t care about your grade.

Well, I do care. I care about every single one of you in this classroom. I go home and write ridiculously long blog entries in my free time to try and help you guys out. Every single one of you that has contacted me by either e-mail or on the blog knows that I get back to you immediately. I care deeply about what I am teaching and why I am teaching it. You should have known that from the very first day. And most of all, I want you to succeed in here. So, to make sure I get speeches from those who have not turned in speeches to me, unless you turn in a copy to me by tomorrow, you will not be allowed to participate in the group speech on Monday, which is worth an ENORMOUS amount of your grade, and your group will be forced to fill the five minutes they have to speak without you and will be graded based on the entire group. Do not let them down, do not let me down, and do not let Rwanda down. They need you. I need you. The world needs you. Let's get to work.

If you got the impression that I was yelling at the class, I apologize. If you think that I have suddenly turned into a terrible teacher, I apologize. However, I suspect that everyone in the class realized that I am not kidding around when I say that I need 100% participation, and there are multiple reasons why this is so. As I said: I'm not angry at all - I'm frustrated and disappointed. It was really an embarrassment to sit down with my supervisor from Lewis and Clark (who you knew was coming, too) after last class and attempt to explain why only 50% of the class turned in this assignment. We all have to work harder - which I think we did for the rest of class, so thank you. If you have any questions or concerns about this, please e-mail me or come see me in person. Thanks.

PEER REVIEW/Group Speech Development: I gave you all a handout of the final group speech assignment, which can be downloaded here:

The Final Group Speech to the United Nations

This is an incredibly important assignment for many reasons, which you all know. If you have ANY questions, contact me or leave a comment. There can be no excuses about this one.

During this time, which lasted all the way until 8:45, I tried to go around and visit with each group, though I know that it was hard to really get much feedback from me. Basically, the individual speeches that WERE handed in were great - there are a few facts out of place and some students needed to remember that you are pretending that the day is April 24th, 1994 - not afterwards, when we know everything about the genocide. Just be sure to really go back over everything and make sure that what you are saying makes sense! Really go for that one point that you will be talking about!

Thank you for filling out the sign-up sheet so I know who will be doing what part and the plan for action to get it done by Monday. It looks to me like you guys are really committed to getting this done, which I am very happy to see.

Please e-mail me with ANY questions about anything related to this at any time this weekend.

I think we are clear on what my expectations for Monday. Please do not disappoint me - you are all SO CAPABLE of being absolutely amazing at this and you know how excited I get about it.

Hip-Hop Language: We brought the class back together and I asked you to break down the reasons why you did and did not like hip-hop/rap. I believe some of the reasons for the PRO column were: lyrics, beat, and meaning. The big CON was: degrading to women/African Americans.

We then went on to look at the lyrics of the song that I played as you entered the room, "Love Language" by Talib Kweli. I pointed out that his way of describing love was not only a little funny, but also really meaningful. However, when I scrolled down on the screen, we saw some use of the "n" and "b" word. The reason that I wanted to expressly point this out and have this a part of the class is because I think it is incredibly important to know what the words people say actually mean. The "b" word comes from the name for a female dog. I mean, how much closer to we really want to get to calling people "cockroaches" (as they did in the Rwandan genocide) or "vermin" (in the Holocaust)?

This lead into talking about the Eight Stages of Genocide:
1) Classification.
2) Symbolization.
3) Dehumanization. (directly related to talking about being careful what words we use)
4) Organization.
5) Polarization.
6) Preparation.
7) Extermination. (because the humans being killed are seen to be not real people)
8) Denial.

These are all explored in much greater detail here: Genocide Watch - The Eight Stages of Genocide. Remember to think about these, as well as the seven pillars of colonialism, when filling out your colonialism to genocide flow chart for next Wednesday!

Hutu Ten Commandments: I didn't get as much time as I would have liked to go through these (though I'm fine with that, because the group work was great), but I think the point was clear. Here they are again for those that wanted a closer look: Kangura: The 'Hutu Ten Commandments' This was basically just to show you another way that you might be able to convince the United Nations that a genocide was being organized WAY earlier than 1994, because this originally appeared in 1990.

So in addition to the definition of genocide, as well as the impact of colonialism in Rwanda, you have: Race. Privilege. Eugenics (the fake science of race). Language. Propaganda. All of these could be potential reasons (and I am SURE that there have been others you can think about) to try and convince the United Nations to do something in your speech on Monday.

The homework you all know about. Again, no excuses from either side this time. This is a really big deal and you know that I really care about it. Please don't let me down.

A few further notes: I will post another, short, blog this weekend as a reminder about the speech on Monday. In the meantime, remember to comment here, call, e-mail -do whatever you possibly can to try and get your group members involved.

I have also added a LINKS sidebar to the blog. It is pretty small for right now, but I may in the future add relevant links to things we are studying. You may find that if you really start paying attention to the news, you will know a whole lot, very quickly.

Finally, I am making the main page of the blog only have 3 posts - otherwise, it is just getting WAY too long to scroll through. You can always click on the Archive links on the side to access old posts like the Welcome blog, which has an insane amount of comments - thanks!

GO GET 'EM CLASS! YOU CAN DO THIS! GOOD LUCK! :-)

Period 1: Genocide in Rwanda, Day 3 - Class Recap

My great friend Ryan, who I talked about in class today, and me. Summer 2007.
Welcome again to another Global Studies class recap blog! Thank you for visiting. Remember, if this is your first time here (or you haven't left a comment yet) please leave a comment on any post, so I know you have visited. With that, let's start the recap!

Soundtrack for today: "I Ka Barra (Your Work)" by Habib Koite. I picked this song because for one, I think it sounds amazing, two, Habib Koite is from Mali, a country in Africa, and three, I got this song for free when I bought this laptop last summer. Good reasons, right? No lyrics link, because none of us would be able to understand them, I'm guessing.

Agenda 12/9/08
Define Racism
Freedom Writers
Privilege
Power of Illusion
United Nations/Peer Review Rough Drafts

Homework: Continue to work in groups on revising drafts into one speech. Check blog!

Before I get to the class content, let me say a few things about the way class started today. Remember, I put you in groups to work on your speeches together, and I made those groups off of three different criteria: 1) At least two boys and two girls per group. 2) Try to have at least one person who had sat next to you previously. 3) If there were any things I noticed as being similar to someone else in the letter to me, I tried to accommodate that.

Thanks for being willing to go with your new groups! I didn't hear much complaining at all, which I was thrilled about.

One really important thing I forgot to mention: please really read carefully my responses to your letter to me (if you have not turned it in, please e-mail me it as soon as possible or turn it in to me in class). I spent a lot of time reading and having fun learning about all of you - thank you so much for all the work you did in writing them! They will definitely help me out in the future.

For starters, one thing that I heard a lot of was about how crowded the halls as Westview are. To help with that, I am going to try and let class out a minute or two early, when possible. I also heard some cool comments about dancing (I'm going to figure out a way to bring that in), listening to hip-hop (I'm a really big hip-hop/rap fan, so that works well), playing sports (everyone should know by now how big of a sports person I am), and also, what you want to do when you graduate (I think architecture was a big one, so I will look for ways to involve that in what I teach too). As you can see, the letters REALLY help me get to know you better and also plan interesting activities. Thank you for writing them! Please read my comments and bring the papers back to class on Thursday - I am going to want to have them back so I can refer to them throughout the year.

Also - if you made any attempt at all to answer the questions I put forth, you got a 10 out of 10, or an A+. I think starting the day off with a big ol' A+ is really a good way to go. :-)

Define Racism: After setting all of this up and having you discuss in groups, I asked you to think of ways which you could describe or define racism in the form of a concept map on the board. Some of what came up was: discrimination, prejudice, race, and advantage (or privilege) - which led directly into the rest of the class! Good job!

Freedom Writers: This discussion on race led to the Freedom Writers clip we watched, which can be found on YouTube below. I asked you to note the role that race plays in the relations of the students.



The clip from Freedom Writers that we watched in class today. Warning: some bad language.
After watching the clip (until the part where the students raise their hands because they have been shot at), I had to use the cards to get things started, but pretty soon afterwards, there was some really interesting thoughts about how race was affecting the lives of the students in the movie, and whether or not it was fair. I also asked you specifically about the white student, who must have felt somewhat persecuted. As one of the students in the film, Eva, says: "it's ALL about color." When someone has that mentality, it is incredibly difficult to not see the world as out to get them. However, should she? If all her life, Eva has only known white people to be (what she sees as) racist, why should she think otherwise?

Privilege: I then gave you the definition of racism that my friend Ryan uses, which is a "system of advantages based on race." I like this definition because it really makes sense when we start talking about privilege, and having advantage (or disadvantage) because of the color of your skin. We went around the class and read the Peggy McIntosh article (linked) "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack." Though it took longer than I expected and I will probably change it up in the future, I think that it provokes some really interesting discussion about what people did and did not consider to be valid arguments.

I then asked you to write out a response to thinking about privilege, which I should have been much clearer on. The question I wrote on the board was: how has privilege affected your life? I also asked you to think about how our privilege or advantage is different than people in Rwanda, or respond directly to one piece of the article. Like I said, I know I wasn't very clear - though I am EXTREMELY excited to see what you had to say! I will get those back to you next class.

We then went on to talk about advantage and privilege being an aspect in both religion AND science. I think that perhaps we commonly think of religions as being discriminatory to other religions, but we often look past how "science" has been used to "prove" that some types of humans are genetically inferior to others. This science is called eugenics - it's a big word to know for the future.

Eugenics were used by colonial powers in Rwanda to say that because Tutsis had bigger brains (Scout talked about how her biology class went over this), were taller, and had longer "more European" noses and the Hutus were shorter and stockier, the Tutsis were put in power (which ultimately leads to a massive backlash and eventually genocide).

Power of Illusion: Continuing on from talking about the power of religion and science to discriminate and ultimately cause conflict, we watched the following clip from the documentary "Race: The Power of an Illusion" -



United Nations/Peer Review Rough Drafts: After this clip, I wanted to discuss your thoughts, though we didn't have much time because I needed to give you at least SOME time for your peer review. However, I did talk a little about the United Nations and the Security Council that you are trying to convince. Does race affect how other countries might see the conflict in Rwanda? How so?

Finally, we got to PEER REVIEW for a little bit of time. I will give you much more time in class on Thursday for this and for developing the group speech from the individual ones you wrote.

One note: though only half the class turned in a speech (that I am aware of - if you did not, please e-mail me ASAP), which is a pretty terrible turn in ratio that needs to be worked on immediately, I must say that just by glancing at the papers that were turned in that they look absolutely AMAZING across the board. THANK YOU to those who worked hard and for really taking the assignment to heart! I do so appreciate it - and you will definitely be well rewarded when you actually give the group speech. :-)

For those that have not turned in the speech - I will be outside the classroom tomorrow, during your passing periods, so please come see me for a blue pass to come work on the speech during your study hall period. You are not only being graded on your individual speech - your group and I will also be grading you as well, so it is crucial that you participate and get things done.

I know that we barely had enough time to go over everything for the speech. Just remember that your group needs to be developing a single speech, where each one of you talks for one solid minute, for next Monday. A really easy way to do this is to take the best part of each person's individual speech, and make it the group's by changing the wording around and such. The United Nations Security Council will be especially looking for conventions (meaning the format of the speech), coherence of points (do they fit well together and make sense), emotional pull, and persuasive ability.

Please use this blog entry as a forum to discuss ideas with your group members, if you want. E-mail them! Call them! Just make sure that you are starting to get a good idea of who is going to say what! If one person does all the work, they will be the only one getting the good grade. You will need to turn in one finished group copy of the speech on Monday, along with the colonization to genocide flow chart.

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns! I will give you your rough drafts (if you have them turned in) back on Thursday to work with.

From now until the end of the break, I will be completely transparent (meaning you should know everything we are going to do) for this class. So here's what we are doing:

This Week:
Thursday - Peer Review/lesson on power of language and obedience.

Next Week:
Monday - Prep for speech/give speech/debrief from speech.
Wednesday - Hotel Rwanda - watch and respond to powerful scenes or ask questions.
Friday - Finish Hotel Rwanda and reflect on lessons learned from Rwanda.

Have a wonderful evening! I will be at the Blazer game from 6 to about 10, so I will not be able to respond to or post comments until after that. Please come see me tomorrow in school if you need me, as well! I am always here for questions, advice, concerns, complaints, anything! Good luck on making these group speeches, amazing students! See you Thursday! :-)

Period 1: Genocide in Rwanda, Day 2 - Class Recap

Africa Impressions Results

Hello wonderful students,

Thank you for another good, productive day. I know that things may have been a little rushed near the end! I'm still working on figuring out the timing on everything. Overall, I think we had a great class and I am trusting that (although difficult and set up quickly) the persuasive papers will be great on Tuesday. I will talk about these much more further on down the post. Let's go with the recap!

Soundtrack for today: "Storms in Africa, Pt. 2" by Enya (lyrics here) I chose this song because we are continuing to talk about Africa (and as we found out, apparently everyone thinks that Africa is pretty much just a dark, scary, diseased, stormy place).

Essential Question: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? What are the lingering effects of colonialism? - The second essential question I forgot to write, but you should have gotten an idea about how to try and answer it through what we discussed today. Remember, essential questions are questions that usually do not have a right or wrong answer, and are supposed to help guide our learning about a subject to be deep, enduring, and transferable. They are also what we are working on at all times (in some way).

Agenda 12/5/08:
Hand Back Work
Debrief Europe vs. Africa Quiz
Colonialism/Kingdom of Rwanda
"Scream Bloody Murder" Video
Persuasive Speech
United Nations and Genocide

HW: Rough draft of persuasive speech (bring TWO COPIES!). Check blog. Extra Credit opportunity: watch "Scream Bloody Murder" documentary on CNN, either Saturday or Sunday, from 5:00-7:00 PM, write a page long response (see below posts for additional info).

Seeing as we really did not get to the last section on the United Nations (and I even had three other things planned if we still had time) there will be some review on Tuesday about everything. Please expect that I will ask you about the basics of the Rwandan genocide - because at this point, I know that you have watched a presentation, written some things down, and watched a clip of a documentary, but I have no idea if you actually know anything about it. Hopefully, your knowledge will shine through in your paper/speech! :-)

Hand Back Work: Everyone should have received just about everything Mrs. DeFrance and I have from you so far back. To those who turned in your letter to me: THANK YOU! I cannot wait to read them. They will be given back for you to review my comments on Tuesday (though I will need them back again).

Debrief Europe vs. Africa Quiz: As you might have been able to tell, I was pretty excited about this. I think the results are very revealing and almost impossible to argue - we think that Europe has great culture (food, accents, monuments, people), and we also think that Africa is a place full of animals, AIDS, hunger/starvation, genocide, diseases, war, and child soldiers. There was barely a single positive thing about Africa, yet we also know absolutely nothing about any cities, leaders, big conflicts, or the Congo Free State genocide.

You would think that if all we knew about Africa was that it is a dark, diseased place, concerned people around the world would also know everything possible about Africa, in order to change it around. Yet we completely ignore it, or talk about all the bad things. I loved what Aaron had to say today, which was something like "we think this way because it is all we have been taught so far in school." Exactly! Same with me! I had no idea! Now that I do know, I really feel like it is one of the most important things I could possibly talk about. Thus, this unit is geared around actually caring about Africa, instead of ignoring what is going on, dismissing it as tribal civil wars, or any other reason we can think of to justify not doing something about it.

Here is the PowerPoint with all the results (this is something you should absolutely show to anyone who wants to know why we are studying Africa and Rwanda):

Europe vs. Africa Debrief PowerPoint

The two Wikipedia articles I linked to (again with the disclaimer: do NOT use Wikipedia for any paper you write. Use it as a good start to find sources, which are usually at the bottom of the page) can be found here: The Holocaust and here: The Congo Free State Genocide. There is absolutely no reasonable explanation for why there is such a lack of interest in the Congo Free State Genocide. None. I am glad that the Holocaust has been so thoroughly researched, and continues to be. However, to completely ignore a genocide of even bigger proportions is another tragedy in itself.

Colonialism/Kingdom of Rwanda: After the debriefing (which, by the way, basically just means going over the results of something), we turned to look at some of the reasons how colonialism has affected genocide (and Rwanda). You should all have the Seven Pillars of Colonialism written down (if you do not, please come see me for a copy) on the back side of the colonization to genocide flow chart.

A few words about the flow chart: This is supposed to be helpful for you, not a burden. I know that a few students were not extremely happy about this being part of the homework. Yes, you will eventually have to turn it in (on Monday the 15th, along with your group speech), however, do not do it this weekend unless you think it will help you write your persuasive paper. I have found that the most persuasive speeches are the ones that lay out a case for why something is happening (give evidence) and then suggest things that need to happen as a result of that evidence.

So, use the seven pillars of colonialism writings and combine them with the notes you took on the German, Belgian, and French colonial impacts on Rwanda directly below, to help formulate your own "road map" to genocide. For example - one really important thing that colonialism does is create hierarchies (which, as Ben so nicely explained, is basically just a way of saying that some people are better than other people in a given society). This can definitely be seen in Rwanda with the Tutsis and the Hutus. How? You can research these and many other connections yourself.

Hopefully that clears up the flow chart.

"Scream Bloody Murder" Video: Thank you for being so attentive to this. If you have been following the blog, you will know that I watched the documentary on CNN last night and my mouth literally dropped. It was an absolutely perfect way to start your final assignment of the persuasive speech to the United Nations.

Persuasive Speech: The assignment, should you have somehow lost it or were not in class today, can be downloaded here:

United Nations Speech Assignment

This assignment is supposed to be challenging. However, I can say with confidence that every single one of you will be able to do it well, if you put your mind to it. This is your chance to actually DO SOMETHING about this all! You are not helpless to stop the violence! In fact, because Mr. Chamberlain, Mrs. DeFrance, and myself will be who you are trying to convince, you have three adults with resources and means that you may not have, available to convince right there in the room. Do not take this opportunity lightly! I asked Mr. Chamberlain to come in because I knew that you would impress him, and I know that I will not regret it.

You also were given the definition of genocide, which we did not have time to go over. I was going to have the class read it together, so that you would know what it is, exactly, that you need to convince the United Nations to do. Please read the definition before you start writing your paper. If you somehow lost the paper, you can find the genocide convention definition online here: Definition of Genocide

The first eight or so articles are what you should really pay attention to - especially the eighth, because that is what you will be doing.

We will talk a little more about what, exactly, the United Nations is, and what it does next class, because we ran out of time. However, if you want to know who you will be speaking before, here's what the UN Security Council is supposed to do: Functions of UN Security Council.

That should just about do it for the recap. A whole heck of a lot, again. Thank you for checking up on the blog - please continue to ask me any questions or relay any concerns by either commenting here or e-mailing me.

One final note: I will not be able to respond to comments or e-mails from about 3 until 9 tonight (meaning that if you post anything, it will not show up until later tonight). Please enjoy your Friday afternoon responsibly in the meantime. Go Blazers (5 PM, ESPN, no extra credit)! Go Westview freshman basketball against South Eugene! Have a great weekend; come prepared and excited for class on Tuesday!

Period 1: Extra Credit Opportunity and Preview for Tomorrow

UPDATE II: The Rwanda part just finished airing. It is absolutely perfect for what I was planning for class tomorrow, so we will be watching it together (if I can tape it later tonight) and not reading the article, as I said we would be doing. The extra credit assignment still applies for the rest of the documentary. I STRONGLY encourage everyone to watch it later tonight (at 9:00), even if you do not want to write up a response. See you in the morning...

UPDATE: The CNN special is also airing early, because it is on right now (6:15 P.M. - it will repeat at 9). If you don't want to stay up late to watch, it would probably be a good thing for you to check it out this time around. So far, it is incredible! Keep in mind those questions I asked below as you watch, should you choose to. :-)


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Good afternoon class,

Amazingly enough, the genocide in Rwanda is getting some attention on the news tonight at 9:00 PM! CNN (channel 44 if you have Comcast) will be airing a documentary called "Scream Bloody Murder" which will deal with parts of the Rwandan genocide and others that have happened in the recent past (or are still going on). A few words of caution: it is likely that the documentary may be pretty gruesome. This tends to be the case with reports on genocide. However, I can almost guarantee it will be worth watching. I am going to have the class read an article on General Romeo Dallaire (who will be featured in the special) tomorrow as well, so you might as well know about him ahead of time.




Here's the plug from the site that I linked to above:

CNN's Christiane Amanpour traveled to the world's killing fields to understand the world's indifference, even as courageous voices tried to "Scream Bloody Murder." A worldwide investigation and two-hour documentary, premiering on CNN/US at 9 p.m. ET/PT December 4 and on CNN International at 0200 GMT December 5.

Again, the questions are: Why is it that people do not care more about this? What can we do to prevent genocide in the future? How can we speak up about stopping conflict? With that in mind, I will give 5 points of extra credit (a normal assignment, like your letter to me, due tomorrow, is 10 points) to anyone that watches the special and types a one page response about what it had to say in regards to the genocide in Rwanda and my above three questions. Or, you could just watch it, not write anything, then come tell me about it tomorrow and I will be seriously impressed as well. That works too. If you do not have cable (and are unable to be at a place that does and is showing the special) and would still like to try and watch it, please let me know. I will likely be able to find a way for you to watch it or something else to write a quick report on.

As for the preview for tomorrow: here's what the class impressions of Europe look like, in Wordle form (I'll explain what that means tomorrow - but basically, the bigger the word, the more you guys wrote it):



Have a great night - try to watch the documentary! See you in class tomorrow!

Period 1: Genocide in Rwanda, Day 1 - Class Recap

Good evening students,

I hope you had a great rest of the day today and are in the process of having a fantastic evening. For you Blazer fans, another win should help! Thank you to those who have already come and commented - I'm glad to see you remembered to!

Here's what we did today in class:

Soundtrack: "Changes" by 2Pac ("Changes" Lyrics). The reason I picked this song to begin the class is because we are all adjusting to the new classroom with me as teacher. Also, I find the song to be really powerful and it speaks to the same sorts of themes we will be exploring in the next few weeks.

Essential Question: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? - Remember, this is what we are working on at all times! If anyone, including me, asks you what you are doing in class, it is answering the essential question. I know the one above doesn't sound really intriguing (it's Westview's mandated one) but I have some other questions coming up that will hopefully promote a little more interest in solving.

AGENDA 12/3/08
Introduction
Letter to Class
Create Rules
Pop Quiz
Textbook Hunt
Debrief
PowerPoint

HW: Letter to me, due next class (Friday). Check blog/review Rwanda handout.

Whew! That is a lot, I know. I was really wondering if we were going to be able to get through it all! Let me break down each section.

My letter to the class you all should have signed copies of. Plus, I'm not really sure about putting up a document that explains my life to the whole internet. I'm sure you all got the gist in class. I'll write out the homework assignment again at the end of this blog.

Our class rules: I forgot to actually write down a separate copy of the poster (which actually turned out to be a pretty good set of rules, I think!), so I will post them in the next entry. Again, I should be able to point to any one of those rules and say "hey, everyone agreed that this should happen." So be on the lookout for that if there is something outside those boundaries happening. Also, if you ever feel like any of those rules (or any common sense rules of any sort) are being broken, please tell me. Let's keep this class focused on the task of figuring out the essential questions! Everyone was fantastic today, for the most part. Please try and keep it going! :-)

The pop quiz. I will sit down tomorrow and type up a list of what everyone said in response to the questions. I know there were a lot, so thanks for hanging in there with me. Like I said in class, I took this exact same quiz at Lewis and Clark (as part of the class where I learn how to teach you guys) and was absolutely amazed about what I did and did not know. I'll share both your combined responses and my original one on Friday.

The textbook hunt: I'm not sure if all of you understood what I was saying, so here it is again. In our Modern World History textbook, which was published in 2005 (11 years after the genocide in Rwanda) there are TWO in text mentions (a one sentence recap for each) of the genocide, each citing ethnic violence between the Hutu's and the Tutsi's and 500,000 people dying, while there is ONE other picture, with two small paragraphs beneath it, citing a number of 1,000,000 dead. So again, the textbook barely had anything at all to say about the genocide, and when it did, it couldn't even be consistent with the number of people killed.

So the debrief focused on the question: why is this? Is the genocide not as important as other things? How come we don't know more about it? I was looking for any answers at all: those that were given about race were, in my view, probably a huge part of the problem. We will explore other reasons for this ignorance in the next few classes.

Finally, the presentation:

"Genocide in Rwanda: The Basics" PowerPoint

A few things about this. One: most of the statistics I used in the first few slides are found here: CIA World Factbook - Rwanda. Now by NO MEANS are those statistics solid hard facts. I know of plenty of other sites that will give different numbers. However, since these are the official US government statistics, I think that it will be useful for your upcoming assignment (which I will reveal on Friday).

Two: I found the picture of the propaganda, "beat the cockroaches" on Wikipedia, here: Rwandan Genocide. Now as most of you know, NEVER use Wikipedia as a source in a paper or for anything else. However, it can be used as a good start to researching something for yourself - just find the sources the article links to at the bottom and go from there. As Michael Scott from The Office once said: "Wikipedia... is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject, so you know you are getting the best possible information."

No, you are not. But it is a funny quote nonetheless!

Much less humorous information: The horrific picture of the Hutu man (who did not support the genocide) that lived after being hacked multiple times by machetes can be found here: TIME.com: Inferno

Finally, the Rwanda PowerPoint handout, which is part of your homework to review (look for the key terms at the end and get a good sense of what they mean) can be downloaded here: Rwanda PowerPoint Handout

Okay. That is about it. Remember, your other (top priority) homework is the following:

Who are you outside of the classroom? What are your goals in life? Tell me something quirky or interesting about you. What do you want me to know about you? What kinds of music do you listen to? What movies do you like? Is there anything going on around the world that you know a lot about – do you have an area of expertise? Topics you want to learn more about? Make a list! What do you like about high school and this class so far? What do you not like? What do you think your strengths and weaknesses as a student are? Finally, do you have any concerns, questions, or comments for me about this class?

Typed, 12 point Times New Roman font, at least one page - attempt to answer all questions!

The more you write, the better I will be able to involve things that are interesting to you into the class. I also just want to get to know each of you better, because I think you all are pretty dang cool. :-)

Please e-mail me or comment with any questions you may have. Thank you again for a great first day - I was especially happy to see how involved the class was with the presentation, even up until the end of the period. Please, please keep that up in the future - you will continue to make me a very happy teacher!

Have a great night and day tomorrow! I will be in N116 in Mrs. DeFrance's room for periods 2 and 4, and will be in the Lower North teacher's clusters during First Lunch, before I head home (sorry to those I told today that I would be in during Second Lunch - if you need to talk to me during that time, please just e-mail to set up a time).

Come prepared and excited for class on Friday! See you then! :-)

Welcome to the Blog!

Hello all,

Welcome to the blog for my Global Studies classes at Westview! Before I begin with posting updates and all that, let me give you a little introduction to this website.

First off, comments can be made on any post by anyone, and they can be anonymous (though I would really prefer that you leave your name - by selecting "Name/URL" on the right, underneath the comment box - so that I can follow up with you in person). Please try to use good spelling and grammar in your comments! I see the comments before they are posted, so don't worry if you don't see your comment right away. :-)

Secondly, because I will be putting up the class agenda and homework, as well as any interesting links (after class has met), I will attempt to give you ways to download the relevant files and documents you may have missed in class or would be interested in seeing again for your homework (or just because). For instance, here is the PowerPoint that I made for my lecture on Forms of Government:

Forms of Government PowerPoint
To view the documents, click on the link and then select "Save" to view it. Make sure you save it to a place on your computer that you will be able to find! You might also be able to select "View" after clicking on the link, but I have found that this is much slower.

Finally, to contact me personally (other than leaving a comment - which I may or may not see immediately), please e-mail me at luke_fritz@beavton.k12.or.us - this can always be found by clicking on "View My Complete Profile" on the right, where my picture is, then clicking on "Email" on the left sidebar. I will get back to you ASAP! Again, please use grammatically correct language and spelling, to the best of your ability. It really is appreciated and will go a long way for you in the future!

I know it might be a lot to take in, but hopefully we will all get used to it! I envision this blog as a place where you will be able to come to converse with your classmates and me, as well as get all the latest assignments, updates from class, and further information.

If you have any questions or comments, please never hesitate to let me know!

Welcome again - thanks for visiting! Please favorite this site and come back soon! :-)